forum Writing for Comics/ Graphic Novels
Started by @AJ
tune

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@AJ

Thought it'd be cool to set up a forum for writing comics and wanted to see if anyone else was up for that.

@GreyBird

Mind if I hop in here? I'm currently working on a comic myself, it's still in the planning stage, but I am wondering about the best format for the script and what it should all entail? Obviously the dialogue and some scene descriptors for the artist, but how detailed should I get with the scene descriptions? I want the (eventual) artist to also have some creative choice when it comes to the art so I only have vague descriptions at the moment. Should they be more solid or is that really something that comes down to the artist and I? I have minimal experience with script writing, having only done so for a short story I did on the Episode app, so if you have any advice there I'm open to it :)

@LilNerdyGingerKitsune

I think that's probably something to discuss with your artist! Since you are the writer, you should probably add what mood you want to convey, and very basic descriptions of scenes so your artist knows what you're trying to to go for. However, if you do want to give your artist some creative liberties make sure you don't go over board with the details, and maybe sit down and talk over certain scenes together so you both like the finished project :) I'm personally doing both the art and writing for my manga, so for me I go as detailed as I need to be, but for you guys that might be different. I have a couple video's though that might be helpful for you, but keep in mind they both draw and write their stories as well. Still I hope they help :)

These two are from Lizbeth R. Jimenez, an American Mangaka (manga artist). I personally find her video's incredibly useful, especially her making manga series.

And these are from Mark Crilley, and manga/comic artist with many published works! I've been watching this dude since I was a wee child, I still have some old drawings that I made following his tutorials xD
All in all, I hope this helps you out!

@CoolBeanz

Hi! I've worked on graphic novels with my artist friend right for a while now, and I find that when it comes to how vague or specific you want to make the scene descriptions, the best way to go is communication with the artist. Maybe even talk out together a lot of what you both imagine for the scenes so they can take their own notes instead of just reading what you wrote. When my friend and I have done that I've found that it leads to a lot more intense and emotional imagery because he was able to produce it clearly in his mind's eye instead of being directed by some words on a screen.
So with that being said, you're mostly going to want to focus on writing dialogue, so some tips for writing comic/graphic novel dialogue:

  1. Keep it fairly short. The artist will have to be able to fit all of the sentence into one text bubble, and you don't want it to block too much of the artwork. This also makes it a lot more dramatic when someone does say something longer, so save your eloquence for heavy moments.
  2. Keep it simple. Unless a character has a definitive reason for using lengthy synonyms for every day words, you should probably avoid this. I've found that it reads better in the comic format and that it helps a lot with the first tip.
  3. Onomatopoieas are your friends. I know writing them into a novel format kind of grates against all writer sensibilities, but you won't have the luxury of describing the character hearing the noise, so it works to just write the sound.
  4. Other than that, just think of it as writing normal dialogue.

This is by no way a definitive guide, you're free to cherry pick or not follow any of it as I am not an expert, but I hope that it helps at least some!